Auctioneers

Christie’s has explained its policy of holding trade-only viewings of its sales, saying they comprise ‘business meetings’ rather than public viewings.

Although the elegant lines of the Cartier Tonneau Curvex wristwatch are the antithesis of today’s macho tool watch, many were used by soldiers in the First World War.

An increasing number of salerooms are now holding specialist sales dedicated to Post-war and Contemporary art with demand at primary market level driving auction opportunities

With all 80 lots getting away – 79 to a single UK collector – a group of walking sticks totalled more than £40,000 at Charterhouse (25% buyer’s premium).

A Roman floor panel sold at auction in 2018 and then to an international buyer will be reunited with two other fragments from the same mosaic after a successful fundraising appeal to keep it in the UK.

The Madoura pottery founded by Suzanne and Georges Ramié in Vallauris, a village in the south of France renowned for pottery production, was a popular place for many artists in the post-war years. From 1948-55 Pablo Picasso lived in Vallauris and divided his time between painting and creating ceramics at Madoura.

Back in 2004-6, a boom occurred in the prices for Jack Vettriano (b.1951) and a host of works made six-figure sums at auction. These included his most famous work 'The Singing Butler', which sold for a staggering £660,000 at Sotheby’s in April 2004, still a Vettriano auction record.

A cigarette box engraved with the facsimile signature Captain Falcon Scott may have been a piece the Antarctic hero gave to a fellow explorer he offended.

The world record for a George Cross has been broken by a medal awarded to a courageous British soldier who died in captivity during the Korean War.

An abstract painting by Aubrey Williams (1926-90) offered at Grand Auctions (20% buyer’s premium) in Folkestone at the end of last year set another auction high for the Guyanese artist.

On March 30 Christie’s France is offering a selection of around 70 Modern and Post-war works from an unnamed Parisian collector that have been assembled over four decades.

A recent sale at Cotswold Auction Company (22% buyer’s premium) included a single-owner collection of antiquities from Lionel Walrond (1927-2020).

Another auction house staging regular sales of Scottish Contemporary art is McTear’s of Glasgow, whose next auction in this category takes place on February 28.

This Liverpool creamware transfer-printed frog mug was produced by the short-lived Herculaneum factory c.1830-33 just after the 1829 Rainhill Steam Trials.

On a day when furniture and antiques proved to be particularly popular, the surprise star of Fellows’ (23% buyer’s premium) 740-lot online sale was an Italian 19th century pier mirror.

This silver teapot has London hallmarks for 1792 and a maker’s mark for silversmith Michael Plummer who worked out of Gutter Lane, London, from 1791-95.